Chronic condition care in the age of COVID
Inadequate treatment of chronic conditions not only impact an employee’s quality of life but also increase downstream health care costs.
Last year was a paradigm-shifting year in health care. As health and safety were prioritized worldwide, employers had to take additional actions to assist their employees and their families. With new challenges, however, come new opportunities – innovations in health care delivery are bringing new value to the employer-employee relationship.
Now almost a year after the pandemic spread through America, employers are looking to further expand their health and wellness offerings to better manage mental health and chronic conditions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, six in 10 adults in the U.S. have one chronic disease and 90% of our nation’s $3.5 trillion annual health care expenditure is spent on people with chronic and mental health conditions.
Related: 5 top health care trends to look for in 2021
The pandemic may further amplify these strains and drive 2021 and 2022 health care costs even higher. With hospitals running at full capacity, many individuals are delaying treatments and avoiding their periodic early-stage detection clinical visits until their problem becomes critical and more expensive to manage. Inadequate treatment of chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity and mental disorders not only impact an employee’s quality of life but also increase downstream health care costs and reduce their productivity.
While clinical visits and having a treatment plan are critically important, the ongoing care and interventions after a visit are the factors that will make employees truly develop healthy behaviors and improve their lifestyle. Most decisions regarding health are family-driven so extending the focus on both employees and their families leads to superior health results.
Additionally, individuals with chronic conditions are more likely to have serious consequences from COVID-19, and employees with chronic diseases are likely to be hospitalized more often and may face limitations in their ability to work and perform daily tasks. Remote monitoring is an efficient and effective tool for improving outcomes in chronic health conditions. Wellness and chronic disease management programs, when utilized, provide education and guidance for optimal disease management, routine screening and development of healthy habits, resulting in higher productivity and lower health care costs. Organizations should prioritize high-risk individuals with robust, targeted programming to produce a healthier, more productive and satisfied workforce.
To assist employees who have chronic conditions, employers should implement evidence-based programs that combine one-on-one live coaching with clinically trained professionals, incorporating digital coaching, wellness education, remote monitoring of health data, medication reminders and a repository for health records to improve outcomes and lower health care costs. Although these kinds of initiatives can be self-managed, the outcomes have better results when employees follow dedicated programs and are assisted with health coaches.
For example, when analyzing diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association, approximately 34.2 million Americans, about one in 10, have diabetes. Furthermore, the total cost estimated for managing diabetes in 2017 was $327 billion, including $237 billion in direct medical costs and $90 billion in absenteeism, which reduced productivity and impacted the ability to work. These costs will continue to increase exponentially unless employers and their employees engage in active interventions to improve health and wellness.
Alongside disease management programs, employers can also introduce periodic health assessments, ongoing health promotions and self-managed wellness programs to further improve employee wellness and morale. Incorporating such resources results in healthier employees and an increase in healt hcare plan cost savings per person.
Work stress is also increasingly a leading workplace health problem as employees who work from home often feel isolated. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, about four in 10 adults in the U.S. have reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorders during the pandemic. That’s why integrating behavioral health in wellness programs and chronic condition management programs will have a meaningful impact.
Prioritizing employee care will result in healthier employees who improve their productivity. By combining remote monitoring and considering the impact of emotional stress on health, employers can help their workforce develop healthy habits to improve their daily lives and chronic conditions outcomes. According to Aflac, 61% of employees agree that they have made healthier lifestyle choices because of their company’s wellness program. By taking the next step to deliver personalized care for the emotional and physical wellbeing of their team members, employers can address the challenges in bending the curve for health care costs.
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